A considerable amount of effort has been devoted for many years to provide solid particulate flavoring materials in which a flavoring oil is contained in the particulate matrix. Various attempts have been made to fix essential flavoring oils in many different types of organic matrices to provide stable free flowing powders which contain the flavoring oils for flavor release when incorporated into many types of foods. Typical examples of flavor fixation are illustrated in rather recent patents, namely, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,314,803; 3,554,768 and 3,736,149. These patents illustrate attempts to incorporate a flavoring oil or volatile ingredient into a carbohydrate matrix, particularly volatile acetaldehyde. With respect to U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,803, the fixation of acetaldehyde in mannitol is disclosed wherein relatively low amounts of acetaldehyde on the order of about 10% or less are initially fixed in a matrix with deterioration or loss of the fixed acetaldehyde over a period of time. In connection with U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,768, a composition is disclosed which contains acetaldehyde fixed in a carbohydrate such as either a hydrophilic colloid, partially hydrolyzed starch or sugar, and mixtures of such carbohydrates are suggested. More particularly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,768 in its operating examples suggests that either lactose, lactose-maltose, larch gum, tapioca dextrin and gum arabic may be employed as matrices for a method of spray-drying aqueous acetaldehyde compositions to provide spray-dried products, but only low levels of acetaldehyde fixation are achieved and such levels are reduced upon storage. In connection with U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,149, flavoring compositions are disclosed which comprise a flavoring agent including acetaldehyde fixed in a matrix material containing lactose, a hydrocolloid gum and a starch hydrolysate, wherein the patent suggests that preferably about 5 to 50% of lactose is present in the stabilized acetaldehyde compositions. Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,149 the operating examples disclose that the lactose is present in an amount of about 15-20% by weight with the balance being a mixture of starch hydrolysate and hydrocolloid gum of about 80-85% by weight based upon the three components. In both U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,554,768 and 3,736,149, initial flavor fixation levels of about 10% or less are obtained with a reduction in the flavor level with the passage of storage time. The above mentioned patents are merely illustrative of the considerable volume of patent literature related to the fixation of flavoring agents in various matrices and it is not the purpose in this rather brief background of the invention to fully detail all of the prior art in this area. Other patents included in such patent literature are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,088,622; 2,258,567; 2,369,847; 2,555,465; 2,673,157; 2,702,262; 2,809,895; 2,824,807; 2,856,291; 2,857,281; 2,929,723; 2,935,409; 3,041,180; 3,264,114; 3,336,139; 3,764,346 and 3,787,592.
In view of the vast body of art in the area of fixed flavor compositions, to applicant's knowledge, it has not before this invention been previously reported that volatile flavoring agents could be fixed in certain carbohydrate matrices in significantly large amounts without detrimental amounts of flavoring agents on the particle surfaces, and it has not heretofore been known to provide a method for producing such particulate flavor compositions in an effective manner without loss of flavoring components.